To Mars and back without leaving.

Summary:
A 'five hundred and twenty day' mission to Mars started on Thursday the third. This mission however will not take place in space, but in a capsule that simulates the conditions of a mission to Mars. Six carefully selected, would-be astronaut multinationals entered the capsule at lunchtime on Thursday the third and will stay in it for seventeen months. A real manned mission to Mars is not to be expected for two more decades. Scientists say that this experiment will help to understand how people react when they are completely isolated for such a long period of time. No luxuries and no contact with the outside world will be made other than e-mails with a constantly increased delay.

Opinion:
I think such a mission is both useful and useless at the same time. Researching how people react to isolation on such a scale can, in my opinion, be tested way cheaper than this will probably cost. The conditions the ‘astronauts’ will be in will change this slightly though, since it’s not just a normal isolation, but an isolation in a mock-spaceship. It will also be useful for when the actual manned mission to Mars will be launched. Since I guess that they will simulate everything that has to do with such an actual mission quite perfectly. I hope they will get the results that they are looking for.

Article:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-mission-to-mars-that-will-never-leave-earth-1991020.html